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Power Up Your Harvest by Adding Flowers to Your Garden

If you could add something to your garden that would naturally deter pests, entice pollinators, increase soil fertility, and add beauty to your garden…you’d want that, right?

What if we told you that thing would also increase your joy both in your garden and your home?

That it wouldn’t require much additional space, planning, time, or money?

That it could immediately shift your mood to a feeling of wonder and wellbeing?

FLOWERS are the most underestimated element to creating a thriving, diverse garden.

Sunflower Field

When many people are just getting started gardening, they often overlook flowers because they’re so focused on growing food. However, experienced gardeners know that growing flowers alongside your vegetables and herbs can have a BIG impact on the productivity, sustainability, and beauty of your garden.

In this video, Stacey walks you through all of the wonderful benefits you can find when you include flowers in your garden:

🌻 Increase your vegetable production by inviting pollinators into your space!
🌼 Grow your own fertilizer and compost.
🌻 Have medicine on demand growing right in your garden.
🌼 Increase the biodiversity of your space to deter pests and entice beneficial insects.
🌻 Add beauty to your garden with pops of color, and bring beauty inside with
bouquets!
🌼 Stop and smell the flowers: boost your mood with natural flower fragrances.
🌻 Embrace the unknown by bringing home new flowers that call out to you.

Mother nature is all about making connections! The productivity of your vegetable plants and the nutrient density of your food depend on the interactions between soil, water, insects, and other plants in your garden. Understanding how nature beings interact in your garden can help you harness the power of biodiversity so you can find more joy in your garden with less work.

But what flowers should you add?

The answer is…yes!

The flowers you add are all up to YOU: your goals, your space, your idea of beauty! A little bit of research and intuition are all you need. Grab that gorgeous flower that calls to you at a local nursery. Join a foraging group and learn about native flower species in your area. Incorporate medicinal flowers like echinacea and calendula for your foray into herbal medicine.

To help get you started, this video includes five important considerations when you’re choosing which flowers to grow:

🌻 What kind of ecosystem are you nurturing?
🌼 How much space do you have, and how can you use it best?
🌻 Do you want to grow perennials or annuals?
🌼 What flowers spark JOY and fill you with excitement and wonder?
🌻 Pick the right plant for the yields you want!

The video also includes the #1 mistake to avoid so you can get all the blooms without any bummers or blunders!

>>> Download the Adding Flowers to Your Garden Cheat Sheet now

Whether you’re looking for more abundance, health, beauty, connection, or joy in your garden, there’s a flower for that! That’s why Stacey calls flowers “food for your soul.”

Enjoy your blossoming bounty!

3 Easy to Grow Culinary Herbs with Kami McBride

3-Easy-to-Grow-Culinary-Herbs

Kami McBride has been a long-time friend of Grow Your Own Vegetables and we are excited to share her with you in today’s article. 

Kami-McBride-in-garden

“Hey Kami, which kitchen herbs are the easiest to grow?”

I get this question a lot, so I thought I would write about the 3 absolute easiest culinary herbs to grow, even if you have had no success with growing herbs.

These are the 3 go-to herbs that my students have had the most success with over the years.

You can do this.

Oregano

Oregano

I have a friend that recently moved into an old homestead that had herb and vegetable gardens that were tended to for decades. The house was empty for a couple years and the gardens were neglected, no watering, no weeding, nothing.  Which herb do you think had overgrown the garden? 

Yep. Oregano.  Everywhere, oregano. I actually had never seen so much oregano. While all the other herbs needed to be watered and were long gone, oregano was holding on and actually thriving!

So if you feel like you can’t grow anything and all your gardening attempts end in failure. Oregano will turn that around! I have to weed out the oregano from my garden otherwise it would just dominate the whole place.

Gardening Tips for Oregano: Oregano does well in full sun or partial shade and somewhat dry, well-drained soil. Do a deep watering once every week or two and then let it dry out. It doesn’t need as much water as most herbs. Oregano spreads easily and is an evergreen plant that can winter over in hard frost.

Garlic-chives-bloom

Garlic chives also known as society garlic

I love to decorate my food with the pink/purple flowers of garlic chives. The fresh leaves are spicy and I use them in my cooking more often than regular chives. They are delicious added to any soup, salad or savory dish. Check out my blog on spicy edible flowers. https://kamimcbride.com/decorate-food-six-spicy-edible-flowers/

Garlic chives are anti-microbial, helping to fight colds and infections. They are also carminative, garnishing your food with garlic chive leaves or flowers helps you with digesting your food.

Gardening Tips for Garlic Chives: Garlic chives like full sun and a little shade. They are a hearty herb that grows in just about any kind of soil. They like moderate watering and well-drained soil. This plant tolerates hot and cold weather and will spread in your garden. This plant has white or purple flowers and both can be used interchangeably.

Peppermint

Peppermint

Do you think of peppermint as a culinary herb?  Tea is usually the first thing to come to mind, but peppermint is a staple culinary herb in our kitchen. You can add fresh or dried peppermint to meatballs, hamburger patties, marinades for any kind of poultry or lamb. Minced peppermint is delicious mixed into yogurt or smoothies. It also goes really well mixed into quinoa and kale salads.

Gardening Tips for Peppermint: Peppermint likes partial shade. It likes some sun, but in hot climates, make sure it gets some afternoon shade.  It likes rich soil but actually I have grown it in all kinds of soil. Keep it moist but be careful where you plant it. Peppermint sends out tons of runners and can take over your entire garden. This is one that you may want to plant in a pot so you can keep control of it. Plant peppermint in an area of your garden that gets the most water. Peppermint grows best along creeks and damp areas.

These 3 herbs can get you started growing your kitchen herbs. Try starting them in pots. Don’t put them together in pots though. Give each of them their own pot! Put them in a sunny spot on your porch, that way you can easily just grab a few snips here and there to add to your meals. Let me know how your gardening adventures go!

Kami McBrides’ mission is to inspire a cultural shift that embraces taking care of our bodies with healing herbs, a deep connection with the earth, and a lifestyle that passes this knowledge on to our children.  She is the author of the much loved book, The Herbal Kitchen, and over the past 30 years has helped thousands of people demystify the world of herbal medicine and learn just how simple it can be to use the healing power of their garden for self-care, prevent illness, and take care of common ailments.

Kami developed and taught the herbal curriculum for UCSF School of Nursing and her work is centered in sustainable wellness practices, creating self-reliance and revitalizing our relationship with the plant world.

Interested in learning more from garden experts like Kami? Check out our Best of Superfood Garden Summit Collection. It’s an inspiration celebration! Think of it as the red carpet of garden masters… in overalls and boots. Kami shares more on Herbal Medicine.

Gardening with Kids, Guest Presentation by Amy Landers

Children have a way with bringing a new level of wonderment and fascination to a garden.We invite you to unleash your inner child and experience your garden all over again. Take a pause on the garden to-do list to experience the awe that every facet of your garden brings.

Below is a presentation we are bringing back from our archives from a few years ago with Amy Landers, “5 Hacks to Garden with Kids WITHOUT Crushing Plants, Complaining & Chaos.”

Inside this presentation, Amy shares five ways to enjoy the garden together. She shares how to successfully garden with kid of all ages. 😁👨‍🌾

Waking Your Inner Gardener – Growing Food Made Easy with Food Revolution Network

We are excited to share with you this week’s episode of Food Revolution Network’s Whole Life Action Hour Series:

Join Stacey Murphy and Ocean Robbins as they share Waking Your Inner Gardener – Growing Food Made Easy

Get free access at https://wlc.foodrevolution.org/broadcasts/ 

Growing your own food is one of the most powerful actions you can take when it comes to your health–and the Earth’s! . As Ocean shares, “You’re increasing self-reliance, increasing community resilience, you’re contributing to the environmental sustainability of your lifestyle, and you’re giving yourself access to a steady supply of super healthy foods.” 

Stacey shares how gardening is “a revolutionary act you can do right at home.” Growing your own vegetables and herbs ensures you’re eating the most nutrient-rich food. 

Food starts to lose its nutrients the moment you harvest it. Filling your plate with freshly harvested vegetables and fruits has an enormous  impact on your health.

Begin experiencing garden-to-table nourishment today!

Access this inspiring conversation here: https://wlc.foodrevolution.org/broadcasts/ 

The Benefits of Fermentation

Fermentation has a rich history that runs hand-in-hand with human history. Fermentation charts the progress of countless societies whose survival depended on bread, one of the oldest fermentations, and of Johnny Appleseed traveling up the Mississippi River spreading the gift of cider. It tells the story of humans seeking to both preserve and enhance the foods they have cultivated from seed to sprout to fruiting body, and tending to their garden with care for all living beings affected by them. For centuries fermentation has been helping us get more of what we grow.

Soybeans and miso are a great example of fermentation that has all of these incredible attributes! Without fermentation, soybeans offer a light flavor; however, after being fermented with koji (the process of making miso), the soybeans develop a rich and complex flavor structure as well as millions of beneficial bacteria, or probiotics, that help balance the microbiome in your gut. These beneficial bacteria then live with us and the by-product of them metabolizing in our gut has shown to manufacture vitamins, primarily K and B12, once in our microbiome [1]. Compared to fresh soybeans, which have a shelf life of a couple weeks at most, miso can potentially last for years and years if handled and stored correctly. Some misos ferment for three years and can be stored far longer. Fermentation has evolved alongside us because of these beneficial properties: preservation, unique flavor development, and bacterial/enzymatic development.

While fermentation is quite special for these attributes, miso does not stand alone in providing the benefits of fermentation. Fermenting cacao develops the flavor, lengthens the life of storage, and increases nutrition, which is what gives us chocolate! Kimchi is another fermented food that provides preservation, develops the flavor, and creates health benefits that the raw ingredients don’t have. Lesser known ferments have been produced in various places all around the world for thousands of years such as masato, a lightly alcoholic, fermented beverage made from yuca root that indigenous Peruvians will steam, peel, and chew the yuca root to be fermented by the yeasts in saliva [3]. With ferments such as sauerkraut the fermentation brings a development of acidic flavor, whereas for miso the fermentation causes a rich, nutty flavor to grow over time. Fermentation can bring vastly different flavors to a food. Fermentation experimentation is your way to discover them.

With the appliances we have these days, fermentation doesn’t fill the deeply crucial role it once did. For many of us, the decision to ferment does not decide if we will make it through winter, but that does not mean that we are in any less need of fermentation and the unique benefits it provides. So much of the food we consume carries fewer nutrients than the same produce grown decades or centuries prior. This is from growing in chemically amended soils, so receiving the nutrients our bodies need from the food we buy is becoming more difficult. This is a point already on many people’s minds, which may have been what brought you to us here at Grow Your Own Vegetables in the first place. 

Because of the average Western diet, increased use of antibiotics usage, and a wide array of other factors that can damage your gut’s microbiome, we as a society are seeing a steep rise in gut-related health issues. The science on the brain-gut connection is young, so actually knowing how many conditions poor gut health may cause is near impossible with our current knowledge. According to Mental Health America (MHA), “research in animals has shown that changes in the gut microbiome and inflammation in the gut can affect the brain and cause symptoms that look like Parkinson’s disease, autism, anxiety and depression.” [2] Because most fermentation methods produce enzymes and bacteria that benefit our gut health, these methods can help restore balance to our gut. By preserving nutrients and increasing our body’s ability to access the nutrients in our food by breaking them down more effectively, fermentation can help make sure our bodies are getting as much as they can out of what we do have. 

Fermented Food

While grocery stores may give us access to fruits and vegetables, often grown by industrial farms, they often prove to be lacking in the nutrients we need to live a healthy life. Supporting your local, small farms that use regenerative and/or organic farming practices who have healthy soil (and therefore healthy foods) is fundamental in voting with your dollar for healthier systems, but organic produce can be unattainable for many without the financial privilege to regularly access these foods. For so many, growing, preserving, and preparing our own food is the best way to access these benefits: the sovereignty, health benefits, and quality of life it provides.

Growing your own vegetables is the foundation that ensures you and your family will receive the nutrition that you need. Fermentation is one of your best tools to make sure the nutrients from the produce you grow will be more bioavailable! After being picked, most vegetables will slowly start losing nutritional content. Fermentation helps reduce that loss in nutrients and can often actually increase nutrient availability! Cabbage’s conversion to sauerkraut is a great example. Sauerkraut has about 12% of your iron and 11% of the vitamin B-6 needed daily, whereas cabbage only has around 1% of your daily iron and 6% of the vitamin B-6. This increase happens simply with salt and time! Often fresh produce will still be the best source for vitamins and micronutrients, but fermented foods will often provide enzymatic and bacterial support to your gut that fresh foods don’t compare to.

While fermentation is often a practice in patience, it can be one of the most deeply rewarding methods of food preparation. Fermentation is a way to take something you are familiar with and have a brand new experience from it! Fermentation, like so many other culinary techniques, can feel overwhelming at first, but it is a rewarding skill to learn. I encourage you to learn through both doing and studying. Other than ensuring safety, there is no one single “right way” to go about fermentation. Fermentation is alive. As alive as I am writing this, and as alive as you are reading it. Because ferments are alive, they can behave in ways that are difficult for us to predict, so be patient with yourself through your fermentation journey.

You can think of fermentation as a young life. We cannot have control over all elements of a life, just as we cannot expect to control all elements of fermentation, but through tending to our ferments in an informed way we are able to guide them through healthy fermentation and create tasty and unique superfoods!

Brandon Beins
Culinary Educator and Human, Plant, & Soil Health Advocate

“My food journey began in high school when culinary classes brought me into the world of creating food. I continued on to culinary school before completing a two year apprenticeship with a local sushi chef. This apprenticeship was really where 

I learned to care for ingredients; how to prepare them in a way that shows them respect. In order to really take care of your ingredients you need to start with the soil. I haven’t had many memorable meals that were prepared with unhealthy produce from depleted soils,and most of the memorable meals from my life were simple meals made from ingredients that had themselves been nourished lovingly and prepared the same way. I believe high quality food can be prepared by anyone, and it starts with the soil.” 

Comment below and share your funky fermentation stories!


 

Superfood: Raw Chocolate Mousse

Marjory Wildcraft

Secrets to Growing Your Own Chocolate

Marjory Wildcraft is the founder of The Grow Network, which is a community of people focused on modern self-sufficient living. She has been featured by National Geographic as an expert in off-grid living, she hosted the Mother Earth News Online Homesteading Summit, and she is listed in Who’s Who in America for having inspired hundreds of thousands of backyard gardens.

Join Marjory and 15 other gardening experts for the 

2021 Superfood Garden Summit

https://superfoodgardensummit.com/